This month’s Round Robin is: Why do I write or feel compelled to write even through the difficult parts?
This is like asking someone why they breathe. LOL
Getting the story out of my head and into the physical world is as necessary as breathing for me. If I don’t, very bad things happen. Well, not as bad as asphyxiation, of course, but my characters will haunt me until I finish it. They visit me in my dreams, wake me up in the middle of the night with awesome scenes, distract me from important conversations, and, of course, the best ideas come in the shower or the car when I can’t do anything about it. (shaking fist at my muse and the characters)
A little eye candy
With my current WIP Snow Spirits, it’s been in fits and spurts. A few weeks ago, I was stuck. I couldn’t move forward but my characters were bombarding me with demands to continue, but, while I’m a pantser, I have to write in a linear fashion. Some people can jump all over the place, writing a scene several chapters ahead, or even write the ending before they begin. I can’t. I have to go from one scene to the next. So, when I wrote a scene that jumped the story ahead of what the characters thought it needed to be, I was stuck . . . for days.
More eye candy because I couldn’t resist
Then, one day, as I stared at the flashing cursor, it hit me. I couldn’t move forward because I had to go back and add in a scene.
You’d think my characters would be more forthcoming about this rather than letting me stare at the screen for a few days.
Nope. I think they like to cause me pain and frustration. LOL
So, yes, I feel compelled to write, even when I’m not in the mood, even when I have chores to complete (actually, chores are great for procrastination—grin), even when sleep calls.
How about you? Are you an author? Do you feel compelled to write?
You have provided some very credible images of the difficulties of writing (except the eye candy photos, but I’m sure some writers would try writing in running water if they could) and how stories develop in purges and splurges, fits and starts.
I had a shower moment with my muse yesterday that opened up the history of the entire world I’d built. I was simultaneously elated and annoyed while avoiding getting shampoo in my eyes.
LOL That is so typical of my muse.
Marci, see, you CAN write in a nonlinear fashion. You went back and inserted a scene. So, you can go forward and insert a scene.
🙂
Yes, but I wasn’t able to keep writing until I fixed it, Bob. LOL
You are so right about our characters doing things “their” way instead of aways being obedient. Water seems to be a stimulant for me as well – either when I’m in the shower or when I’m walking along the shore. Whole scenes or conversations pop into my head and I find myself carrying on conversations with my characters or between them. Can’t wait to get back to the computer and capture it before the urgency fades.
Besides the shower, the other place my muse loves to “gift” me with scenes of crucial importance is when I’m driving. I don’t have a smart phone, nor do I have access to a computer when driving. So I have to just listen(watch, whatever my brain does while stories develop) and hope I remember enough of it to write it when I’m stationary at my laptop again! No wonder the Greeks used to think of the Muses as particularly capricious nymphs who delighted in torturing artists!
Oh, yeah, driving is a favorite place for my muse, too. Or right before I go to sleep at night. LOL